MARK RUBERY CHESS

During the 6th Hainan Danzhou tournament held in Danzhou, China five years ago the 16 year-old Wei Yi executed one of the most stunning combinations ever played. Here is the game that has already been appended titles such as ‘The Pearl of Danzhou’

Wei Yi (2724) - Bruzon Batista,L (2669) [B40]

6th Hainan Danzhou GM Danzhou CHN (2.4) 2015

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.Be2!? Nc6 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Qc7 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Be3 Be7 9.f4 d6 (Perhaps Bruzon was tricked into the Scheveningen via this irregular move order.) 10.Kh1 0–0 11.Qe1 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Qg3 Bb7 14.a3 Rad8 15.Rae1 Rd7 16.Bd3 Qd8 (16…Re8 is the usual move here although admittedly the position already seems quite dangerous) 17.Qh3 g6 18.f5 e5 19.Be3 Re8

20.fxg6 hxg6 21.Nd5 Nxd5? (Essentially the losing move but the refutation is very far from obvious. 21… Bxd5 avoids the coming storms although White then retains a clear edge) 22.Rxf7!! (The beginning of a magnificent king hunt filled with equal amounts of violence and subtlety)…Kxf7 (22…Nf6 23 Qe6 Kh8 24 Bg5 wins) 23.Qh7+ Ke6 24.exd5+ Kxd5 (24… Bxd5 25 Bxg6! Rf8 26 Qh3+ Kf6 27 Rf1+ Kxg6 28 Qh6#) 25.Be4+! Kxe4 26.Qf7! (The beginning of three ‘quiet’ queen moves that weave a net around the black king. 26 c4! with mate in nine was the silicon route which in no way detracts from the youngster’s grand concept. ‘An extremely difficult move to foresee. Such moves are reminiscent of Tal who used to sacrifice material without care and then make a quiet move taking control of the important squares.’-IM Shah)…Bf6 27.Bd2+ Kd4 28.Be3+ Ke4

29.Qb3! (After the game the Chinese prodigy was asked "Did you see the checkmate when you played the R×f7?" Wei Yi replied, "I saw a good attacking chance. I didn't see the checkmate until I played Qb3)…Kf5 30.Rf1+ Kg4 31.Qd3!

(‘Isn't this unbelievable? Black has so many pieces, but none of them can come to the rescue of their king. And by the way this is the only winning move.’IM Shah)…Bxg2+ (31...Rg8 32. Qe2+ Kh4 33.Rf3! Bxf3 34.Qxf3 mates in studylike fashion) 32.Kxg2 Qa8+ 33.Kg1 Bg5 34.Qe2+ Kh4 35.Bf2+ Kh3 36.Be1! (And there is just no way to prevent the mate with Rf3 or Qd3) 1–0

In my games I have sometimes found a combination intuitively simply feeling that it must be there. Yet I was not able to translate my thought processes into normal human language. - Mikhail Tal

Today the Candidates Tournament in in Ekaterinberg, Russia takes place to determine the challenger to Magnus Carlsen’s World title. The betting odds for the double-round event are: F Caruana 1/1 , L Ding 5/2, A Grischuk 7/1, I Nepomniachtchi 8/1, A Giri, 12/1, T Radjabov 12/1, H Wang 20/1 and (wild card) K Alekseenko 40/1